The invention concerns a method for analyzing wine, in which a wine sample is withdrawn from a wine bottle through the bottle closure, in particular, a closure made of cork oak or plastic material.
A method and a device for withdrawing wine from a sealed wine bottle without removing the cork from the wine bottle is disclosed in US 2005/0178801 A1.
The quality of a wine is determined by numerous factors, in particular, the combination of sugar, acid, phenols (including polyphenols), tannins and alcohol. It is the task of winemakers to harmonize this combination by trying to create qualitatively pleasant wines through selection of the grape varieties, the soil on which the vine is growing, the yeast used for the fermentation process and additionally the vinification process.
Wine changes when it comes into contact with atmospheric oxygen. For this reason, wine is substantially stored in gas-tight containers such as bottles or casks. Wine is usually exposed to ambient air only shortly prior to consumption.
Wine bottles were initially primarily sealed with cork from the bark of cork oaks. In the recent past, there has been a trend towards using corks made of plastic material. The cork is removed prior to drinking the wine and the wine contained in the bottle is usually poured out into drinking glasses. For this reason, the wine contained in the bottle comes into contact with a large amount of air. When the bottle is resealed, e.g. with a stopper, a considerable amount of air remains in the bottle above the wine. This contact with air is enough to impair the quality of the wine during further storage. For this reason, once a bottle has been opened, it is normally consumed within a relatively short time.
Prior art discloses some apparatus and methods of removing wine from a sealed bottle in order not to impair the quality or storage stability of the residual wine in the bottle.
The above-mentioned document US 2005/0178801 A1 proposes to pass a cannula through the cork, let some gas flow from a pressure gas cylinder through the cannula into the wine bottle by opening a valve, and after closing the valve, withdraw a corresponding amount of wine from the wine bottle through the cannula. Removal is performed by a removing device comprising the cannula, the pressure gas cylinder with pressure reducer, a valve means and a traversing mechanism for guiding the cannula relative to the wine bottle. The removing device is mechanically complex and the removed amount of wine is very difficult to control.
Further mechanisms for removing wine from sealed wine bottles are disclosed in US 2010/0006603 A1, WO 2011/010616 A1 and DE 24 49 861 A, which are each provided with double cannulas and also have a relatively complicated structure.
The quality of a wine is usually determined at competition tastings, and high-quality wines are given an award.
In addition to wine tastings, the quality of a specific wine can also be determined by means of chemical analysis. U.S. Pat. No. 6,885,003 B1, for example, discloses examination of the quality of grape must or wine by means of broadband infrared spectroscopy.
Only small volumes of a wine sample, in most cases only a few millimeters, are generally required for a spectroscopic analysis. In case of more expensive wines, it is generally not desired to sacrifice a whole wine bottle for withdrawing a wine sample for spectroscopy.
It is the underlying purpose of the invention to provide an inexpensive method which is easy to perform for analyzing a wine sample from a sealed wine bottle, wherein the removal of a wine sample does not considerably impair the quality or storage stability of the wine that remains in the wine bottle, in particular, wherein the volume of the withdrawn wine sample can be easily controlled.